RIP Ricky Bell

[arthur74]

I was saddend to hear of the passing of former Stamp Ricky Bell today. He was a member of their 2001 Grey Cup winning team. He was only 36. I know he played on several teams in his 6 year CFL career but I remember him best as a Stampeder. He also had some time in the NFL. The funeral was on Wednesday in South Carolina.

[go riders]

http://www.thestar.com/sports/football/cfl/article/945289--former-cfl-db-ricky-bell-dies-at-36

Ricky Bell, a six-year CFL veteran who won a Grey Cup with Calgary, has died. He was 36.

There was no immediate word on the cause of his death last week. His girlfriend Tanisha Means declined to comment when reached in South Carolina, and the Calgary Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who both issued releases on the death, said they did not know.

Bell, a defensive back, joined the CFL in 2001 after three seasons in the NFL with Jacksonville and Chicago.

He spent one season in NFL Europe and another in the XFL before joining the CFL.

Bell played for Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Montreal before leaving the league in 2007. His career ended in 2008 with the Arena Football League’s Georgia Force.

B.C. Lions coach Wally Buono, who coached Bell in Calgary, seemed shaken when talking about the player’s death.

“I’m always disrupted and saddened when I hear that,” Buono said Friday. “These are young men that you would never think would be passing away before you are. I’m a lot older than Ricky.

“For his family it’s a tragedy. For the CFL you have to give thought of that. He was a competitor. He was a good guy. He was a good football player and helped us win a Grey Cup.”

In his first year in the CFL, Bell recorded 45 tackles, one special-teams tackle, two sacks and one interception with the Stampeders en route to winning the title.

“It is always sad any time you lose somebody at such a young age,” Blue Bomber president Jim Bell said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this time.”